Dengue, now national emergency, kills 491 in the Philippines in 7 months

MANILA, Philippines: At least 491 people, mostly children, had been killed by dengue throughout the Philippines in the first seven months of 2019, official figures show. That's equivalent to 82 fatalities per month in the last 

This figure — 70 dengue deaths per month — is a 46 per cent jump from the same period in 2018.

The Department of Health (DOH) has declared a national health emergency to raise public awareness and action over the spread of the killer mosquito-borne disease.

Dengue threat 

The fatality figure for 2019 was 155 deaths higher than that of 2018 which saw 336 deaths for the same period.

The Inquirer cited DOH data showing a 22 per cent spike in dengue cases nationwide — to 5,744 from June 30 to July 6, 2019, from 4,703 cases reported in the same period in 2018.

The health department also reported that 115,986 cases of dengue had been reported from Jan 1-July 6, 2019 — almost double the number of cases (62,267) in the same period in 2018.

The agency had declared dengue epidemic in five regions.

Nearly a fourth of the cases (23 percent) involved children aged 5-9 years old and 19 percent involved children 10-14 years old.

Dengue carrier

Female aedes egypti mosquitoes are the main carriers of the dengue virus, which is transmitted by mosquito bites.